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  1. #1
    Legendary! Obelisk Kai's Avatar
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    Next Expansion's Hook?

    Blizzcon is months away. We don't even have the usual patent telling us what the expansion's name is but that has never stopped good speculation anwyay. But we can all rest assured the fifth expansion is in development.

    I don't wish to speculate about the setting, the 'where' of the expansion, I want to think about the 'what', the features and hooks Blizzard will use to advertise their products, the features that will reshape the game. Each expansion has done this.

    With the Burning Crusade we got the promise of two new races (both of whom filled gaps in their respective sides), previously faction locked classes available to both factions, flying mounts, the new jewelcrafting profession and arenas.

    With Wrath of the Lich King we gained a new class in the Death Knight, a new profession in Inscription, a new vehicle control system that has been deployed to great effect in the years since it's introduction. Note that two promised features, Path of the Titans and Dance Studio did not make the cut. Path of the Titans metamorphisesed into the glyph system Wrath deployed, and the Dance Studio remained elusive.

    Come the Cataclysm, we had the entire old world overhauled and flying allowed in nearly all areas of Azeroth. There was a massive stat overhaul with the addition of mastery being the most significant, Archaeology was introduced as a secondary profession. Rated Battlegrounds were introduced as an alternative to Arenas.Two more new races, again each filling niches in their factions where introduced. The first revamp of the talent system was also implemented, a revamp that Blizzard ultimately judged wanting. Later patches introduced Transmogrification and Looking for Raid.

    Finally we have MOP where blizzard deployed a New Race AND a New Class,the Pet Battle System, the new Talent system, the friendship reputation system, Scenarios, Challenge Mode Five Mans, AoE looting, our own personal farm and (like it or loathe it) Cross-Realm Zones.

    so...

    So look back, and what emerges? Firstly, Blizzard likes to have SOME sort of hook for each expansion. A new playable race or a new playable class. Is that likely next time, regardless of setting?

    Right now what artists Blizzard can spare are busy building brand new character models for the original races and the burning crusade races because, and let's face it, to stand an Orc or a Human next to a Pandaren is to make you almost want to cry. There's no getting around this, the old models are much too limited. Character Creation should be one of the most fun parts of any game and yet with WoW the options the older races have no longer cut the mustard. Everyone and their mother is prediciting that the new character models will form a part of patch 6.0 and I agree. I believe they will arrive free prior to the launch of the expansion rather than being activated as part of buying the expansion.

    However I am 'speculating' that this may grow beyond a simple model update (although if it ends up being just that it would be fantastic). I'm hoping Blizzard treats this as an opportunity to improve their whole character creation process, allowing us to colour our hair or shade our with gradient sliders rather than from 9 or 10 pre-selected options. Maybe alter our height, our build or the shape of our faces. It would mean giving the Worgen, Goblins and Pandaren a little bit of an overhaul as well but not to improve or rebuild in any meaningful sense their models, but to make sure they are relevant in a character creation system I hope will be able to stand up to almost any modern MMO.

    But with ALL that effort being spent on updating the old models, will there be any to build one or two new races completely from scratch? My gut says no.

    So maybe it would be a new class? New classes are all well and good of course except in the end they affect a small proportion of the player base, specifically those guys who decide to level one whereas a lot of players will be busy playing their mains, and many won't have time for a lot of alts given Blizzard's new paradigm of providing plenty to do at max level for a toon. I'd say a new class will be likelier than new races though.

    How about giving every class a fourth specialization,as Druids currently do? It would solve the problem of pures at least, imagine giving Hunters/Warlocks a tanking spec based on their pets. Mages could get a healing spec, maybe using their arcane powers to rewind time (so the damage never happened) or slow down it's applicaton. Rogues could get a healing spec too, maybe something to do with their knack for mixing poisons and potions. And Classes that have one utility role already, such as Death Knights with Tank, and then two dps specs, why not a third dps spec, maybe resurrecting the Necromancer class as one that wears the spell plate currently monopolised by Paladins. After all, the former pures would have three dps specs.

    Of course, that runs into the problem that having 44 specs across 11 classes would be a nightmare to balance and runs the very real risk of class homogenization hitting all time highs.

    Maybe some form of alternate advancement could be introduced?

    Maybe another mini-game like Pet Battles?

    Maybe they could bring back Dance Studios as a method of customising your characters casting/weapon skills animations?

    Player Housing?


    The only feature I can be fairly sure about (the new models in 6.0 is a matter of good guesswork on the part of the community) is the big stat crunch to attack the game's gearflation, and given Blizzard doesn't like the fact our character's will feel weaker after it they may not want to trumpet this feature if they go with it even if it is for the good of the game.

    It's a blank canvass really. But this time I feel whatever they add will have to have a big impact on our existing characters beyond cosmetics. I wonder what it will be.

  2. #2
    With all the Burning Legion clues I think this may be the last chance for some demon hunter content, if ever or for a long time to come.

    But I am sure Blizzard has something very novel planned in some way that will make the game more than just another Burning Legion war. Hopefully involving alien worlds but more so something we couldnt possibly guess is coming mechanic wise. Not something so radical it will change the game forever but something new and fun to do in a new way.

    I often have thought about a Southsea type expanison with chains of islands to explore through sailing sort of like Wind Waker. Stuff like that get's me excited (not that I'd expect that at all with a Burning Legion theme it's just a rough example). I just love having new stuff and new reasons to play WOW.

    I hope in the place of a new race we get the updated models with expanded customization like new hairstyles, tattoos, and lore based choices like brown or red orc skin.
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  3. #3
    Herald of the Titans Urti's Avatar
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    I really don't have any kind of data backing these up other than gut feeling/wishful thinking but;
    -New Player models, with (slightly) more customization options.
    -Auction House/gold making being expanded into an actual legitimate minigame, with it's own endgame and rewards like titles, mounts, and so on.
    -Player housing in some capacity, most likely as an expansion of the phasing farm idea from MOP
    -Possibly (but not likely) fourth specs for some classes, like the hunter/warlock tank idea.
    -A RTS minigame reminiscent of Warcraft I/II/III being implemented as a sort of side quest/mission chain.
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  4. #4
    I think farm/player housing has a lot of opportunity in WOW at this point. I hope they have something cool planned there.

    I also think if Blizzard is redoing all of the animations for the new character models, that means not only are they redoing the combat animations to look updated (while still doing the same maneuvers) but they will also be updating the dances possibly. I wonder if they would just have the old dances with better animations, or if they may finally do something about all the sticks in the mud who love to cite the "dance studio" as if it were a precedent that wins every argument they make concerning criticism of Blizzard.

    It would be funny and a little ironic to see the new character animations also have new dances in light of all the people trying to claim the player model updates aren't ever going to happen because the new dances never happened. I wouldn't bet on any of this, but it makes a kind of sense if they are polishing all the player animations and not just some of them. If they are polishing every single animation you do, then that means they have to be polishing the dances too. The dances look so good already I wouldn't be surprised to see every animation polished but the dances though, if they are easily copy and pasted to the new model skeleton.

    The thing is I don't give a flying fuck about dances in the first place. I just like conjecture.
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  5. #5
    Pit Lord Thulvaso's Avatar
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    Hopefully Argus, Velen gets some vision or something telling us to go there and save the day not got anything story wise for it personally. On the trademark thing, I think when they done it so early for MOP people were left kind of disappointed by Blizzcon as they knew it was coming a long ways off, they might leave it a while this time.

  6. #6
    It is maybe not something that will be selling point for the expansion, but I would like to see Blood Elf & Draenei starting zones revamp as they did it in Cataclysm with rest of Azeroth. And also, merging this zones with Azeroth, as now, when everyone have TBC there is no sense to keep them separated.

  7. #7
    Pit Lord Thulvaso's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by reffan View Post
    It is maybe not something that will be selling point for the expansion, but I would like to see Blood Elf & Draenei starting zones revamp as they did it in Cataclysm with rest of Azeroth. And also, merging this zones with Azeroth, as now, when everyone have TBC there is no sense to keep them separated.
    For a short time during the 4.1 PTR Ghostlands was flyable, TotalBicuit done a video on it, they need a complete overhaul of it. sharpen up textures and fix the trees.


  8. #8
    Aside from the possibility of the Burning Legion returning, a few things IMO:

    1. Possible 2 new races. Could be Ogres for the Horde, Ethereals for the Alliance. Something like that. Who knows.

    2. New Class. A lot of people think it'll be a Demon Hunter if they are even adding a new class, but I personally think it'll be a ranged Plate Caster.

    3. Fight against Sargeras or Kiljaeden. That's just..enticing for anyone.

    And, what I personally think will be the major hook if they're done in time:

    4. New Vanilla Race models.
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  9. #9
    Hopefully they'll make faction specific classes again and give us Demon Hunters for Alliance and Blademasters for Horde. But I doubt it...
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    "Target has no pockets"

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by MMOTotal View Post
    For a short time during the 4.1 PTR Ghostlands was flyable, TotalBicuit done a video on it, they need a complete overhaul of it. sharpen up textures and fix the trees.

    Yeah, I've seen that video. Im actually curious why they didn't make overhaul of these zones with the rest of Azeroth.

    Quote Originally Posted by Aeryana View Post
    Hopefully they'll make faction specific classes again and give us Demon Hunters for Alliance and Blademasters for Horde. But I doubt it...
    I highly doubt it. They have given paladins to horde and shamans to alliance, because otherwise they would need to make this classes very simillar to avoid balance issues. I think that there will never be faction specific classes again.

  11. #11
    Pit Lord Thulvaso's Avatar
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    I would actually like to see class quests implemented in a way again, I feel that classes now are just there and don't have anything epic for picking it. The warclock quest in 5.2 is the logical step for adding more high level class specific content. Maybe they are testing this for the future.

    For a mage you could travel the world for components for a staff that rivals LFR weapons.

  12. #12
    Legendary! Obelisk Kai's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aeryana View Post
    Hopefully they'll make faction specific classes again and give us Demon Hunters for Alliance and Blademasters for Horde. But I doubt it...
    Given the experience with Shamans and Paladins I think there is less than no chance of faction unique classes ever again.

  13. #13
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    I do have to say that, with the amount of class revamping, they have essentially had to "balance" 16 or so different specs. Shadow Priests, all 3 warlock specs, Warriors, slightly Paladins, Boomkins, the "new" Feral/Guardan specs, all 3 mage specs (who have recieved enough changes to significantly alter the playstyle of all 3), of course, the new monks, have all either been new enough to need to be balanced into the game, or changed enough to need rebalancing. The 2 classes that didn't change all that much, well, Hunter's were significantly OP coming into PvP, and Rogues weren't as good as past expansions. Either way, as long as blizz doesn't do the same amount of changing like they did this expansion for most classes, balancing 11 new specs would be simple compared to this expansion, especially since all 11 would be based on already existing classes.

    So, yea, if they don't do a new spec, I'm guessing that all classes that currently don't have a 4th spec will recieve a 4th spec, and blizz will most likely introduce tri spec.
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  14. #14
    Legendary! Obelisk Kai's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by reffan View Post
    Yeah, I've seen that video. Im actually curious why they didn't make overhaul of these zones with the rest of Azeroth.
    It comes up a few times on twitter. Ghostcrawler says that to complete Silvermoon City would be a vast sink of time and resources they'd rather spend on other projects. What I am MORE curious about is why didn't they design Silvermoon as a fully fledged city to begin with, in the expansion where they were also introducing flying. Why didn't someone say 'You know, maybe one day we'll expand this feature across the entire game rather than just one continent and we should design all content going forward with that in mind'.

    Sad in a way. Maybe one day.

  15. #15
    Herald of the Titans Eorayn's Avatar
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    I think the game is too easy. You can rush through the first 70 levels without one death, and the currency system (gold, silver, copper) is functioning very poorly, it is too easy to get a shitload of money. And the stuff to do at max level should be explored and expanded more, give people a reason to go back into the world.

    Every class should be severely nerfed to elevate the difficulty of the game, for example is single combat and even multi combat extremely easy. You can literally slay ten mobs without loosing any health nowadays.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by MMOTotal View Post
    I would actually like to see class quests implemented in a way again, I feel that classes now are just there and don't have anything epic for picking it. The warclock quest in 5.2 is the logical step for adding more high level class specific content. Maybe they are testing this for the future.
    This. Maybe epic class quests that will be hard to complete and will reward with something like unique titles? Archmage, Archdruid, Blademaster etc? And ofcourse something like felfire for warlocks.

  17. #17
    I wouldn't mind seeing some "staged events" in the next expansion. For instance: GMs or appointed players take control of some elites in a specific locale, let's just say Blackrock Orcs from Redridge as an example. They're taking over Goldshire and we need to flush them out.

    Obviously the real deal would be much bigger scale and with higher level content, but you get my drift. Anyone else think that would be fun as all hell?

  18. #18
    Old God Shampro's Avatar
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    I have a feeling that all the people that are saying the next expac will be Burning legion will be dissapointed, hinting something doesn't mean it WILL be the next one, In my opinion I much much much more expect to fight against Queen Aszhara and Nzoth.

    Anyway, in regards to the features themselves, I'd say Character models is a given, a new mini game type of game, remember that pet battles was the first one, and it was fairly succesful I imagine they will try it again. And I fully expect a new race for both factions this time around, Ogres can be a good option for Horde. Ofcourse there will be a lot more, but those are some I more or less expect.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Shampro View Post
    I have a feeling that all the people that are saying the next expac will be Burning legion will be dissapointed, hinting something doesn't mean it WILL be the next one, In my opinion I much much much more expect to fight against Queen Aszhara and Nzoth.

    Anyway, in regards to the features themselves, I'd say Character models is a given, a new mini game type of game, remember that pet battles was the first one, and it was fairly succesful I imagine they will try it again. And I fully expect a new race for both factions this time around, Ogres can be a good option for Horde. Ofcourse there will be a lot more, but those are some I more or less expect.
    Do you really think Azshara could carry an expansion by herself? I really don't think so. She always has worked as a villain used in conjunction with another, and I don't think N'zoth can carry a whole expansion either.

    I also don't think Blizzard puts so much foreshadowing for one theme for no reason. Have you seen this list?

    http://www.blizzplanet.com/blog/comm...rn-of-sargeras

    I would expect some foreshadowing for Azshara beyond Vashjir and Darkshore if she was coming around soon. She may even be incorporated into the Legion expansion with her history with Sargeras.
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  20. #20
    I do not know if Path of the titans was suposed to be in Wotlk.
    But it was suposed to be in Cataclysm, but they scrapped it.

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